The Keen Dance Theatre
performance on Friday evening (January 25) was, in a sense, a homecoming for
founder John Keen, who is a Louisville native and who studied at the Youth
Performing Arts School. It was also an introduction to Louisville dance
aficionados of his New York-based high-energy ensemble dance company. There are
few Louisville-based dance companies, and The Kentucky Center’s touring dance
program brings in fewer companies than in past years. As such, this event was a
welcome event to Louisville’s dance calendar. However, there were too many
glitches throughout the evening for this to be a completely successful event.

Advertised at 7:30p.m., it
was not until 8:20p.m. that Mr. Keen’s father took to the stage to acknowledge
that the program was starting late. With an audience that numbered many family
and friends within it, allowances will be made for any challenges facing the
company.But expecting the
audience to wait for almost an hour after the published start time, with no
public explanation, is taking loyalty and patience too much for granted.

In addition, there were
technical problems throughout the evening. On several occasions, the wrong
soundtrack began, once in the middle of a dance piece, leaving dancers waiting
on stage to begin a new sequence.Light cues seemed somewhat random, suggesting that the company was
adapting to what the Ursuline Performing Arts Center already had programmed
rather than implementing a design that was created for each dance.Although the program indicated that
there would be a ‘pause’ between each piece, Mr. Keen needs to consider costume
changes as he arranges the program in order to diminish the awkwardness of
those pauses.

The highlight of the evening
for me was the most recent piece in the program, the eponymously named Keen (2013).In this piece, the ensemble was, indeed, at its most keen.
Costumed in brilliant blue, with swirling movements that at times paying homage
to African dance forms, the dancers were at their most cohesive, and Mr. Keen’s
choreography was at its most sophisticated. In this piece, his command of the
ensemble as a whole together with the variations for smaller combinations of
dancers lifted the evening to its highest level; the final image of the company
was stark and specific, and brought an almost audible gasp from the audience.

The one piece in the program
not choreographed by Mr. Keen was J. P. Flores’ Breathing and he also danced the piece. Set to Pachelbel’s Canon, this
piece suggests that dance is indeed the breath of life, with fluid movements
from the most expansive to the most contracted. Mr. Flores is one of KDT’s most
assured dancers, and this solo piece naturally plays to his strengths as a
dancer. There were two other solo pieces in the program, both named for the
respective songs on which they were set. (More information about music
selections would have been a welcome addition to the program notes.) In the
first half, Maeve Boldron danced Nobody
Does It Better. Ms. Boldron brought intensity and a playful sexiness to
this piece that caught the audience’s attention. Steven Jeudy danced Someone To Watch Over Me in the second
half, a piece that suggests both the need for that someone and the loneliness
when that someone does not materialize. Mr. Keen has clearly choreographed this
specifically for Mr. Jeudy, highlighting his extension and pirouettes,
specialties that were also showcased each time this dancer performed.

The other pieces in the
program were four ensemble pieces. The evening began with Apocalyptica,
which unfortunately had the most technical glitches, interrupting the flow of
the three-part piece, two ensemble sequences interspersed with a solo by Mr.
Flores.In his program notes, Mr.
Keen talks of his organic process, creating space for the dancers’ natural
reactions to shape the pieces. Coupled with the range of experience within his
company, this is not always felicitous. At times, the kinesthetic responses
ripple through the ensemble in a way that supports the moment; at other times, it just looks as if some dancers are not quite in sync with the others. And this was most noticeable in this
piece. Much more powerful
was the all-female A Woman Scorned. Described as a piece in which women
deal with emotional and physical wounds, the dancers clearly had internalized
these conditions, and this was the most somber piece of the evening. The two
pieces that bracketed part two of the evening get to the essence of this
company – they love to dance – I Heart
Dance and 4 On The Floor.The first number was a joyful celebration
of dancing culminating in a final image that brought the dancers into a
traditional circle with Mr. Jeudy in characteristic pose in the center. The
evening ended with an exuberant homage to disco; with jewel-tone costumes that
took us back in time, the dancers individualized their disco moves within an
overall arc of dance party music. Their enjoyment of this final piece was
palpable and engaging.

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